Chapter 8 - Nolan Comes Home

From a distance, Nolan looked like Ethan. Up close, his eyes were colder.

"Mara," Nolan said calmly, "I heard there was trouble at the cemetery. Are you all right?"

She almost admired the performance.

"Your wife hit me."

"Bianca can be emotional."

"She attacked a pregnant woman."

Nolan's smile vanished.

His gaze dropped to Mara's stomach.

Ethan stepped between them.

Too late.

Nolan understood.

"Is it yours?" he asked.

Ethan said nothing.

Nolan's expression became strangely peaceful. "That's unfortunate."

"For you," Mara said.

His eyes snapped to hers.

"You clean my floors. Don't confuse proximity with power."

"I cleaned your floors," Mara answered. "Past tense."

Nolan chuckled. "Bianca fired you? Efficient as always."

Ethan held up the red folder. "You forged the trust amendment."

"Prove it."

"I will."

"With what? The ledger you can't find?"

That landed.

Nolan knew.

Ethan took a step forward. "Where is it?"

"You mean the little black book Dad kept because he didn't trust computers? I burned it months ago."

Ethan watched him carefully. "No, you didn't."

Nolan's smile returned.

Mara saw it too.

He was lying.

Suddenly the study doors slammed shut behind him.

The security chief appeared through the side entrance.

"Ethan," Nolan said, "you have two choices. Walk out of here and disappear again, or I call the police and tell them the fugitive who stole six million dollars broke into my house with an employee he manipulated."

"Former employee," Mara said.

"You really are committed to that detail."

Ethan reached slowly into his jacket.

The security chief drew a gun.

"Hands where I can see them."

Ethan did not reach for a weapon. He pulled out his phone.

"Everything you've said for the last two minutes is already uploading."

Nolan's face changed.

"To who?"

"Three journalists, my attorney, and a federal investigator."

It was a bluff. Mara could tell from Ethan's thumb covering a cracked black screen.

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But Nolan could not.

Then a crash exploded from the hallway. Bianca screamed. Everyone turned. Mara ran.